The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1887-10-26
MYSTERIOUS DISCREPANCIES.
Two Cases I'm England of Historic Interes
The Man of the Iron Mask


Two Cases I'm England of Historic Interest
The Man of the Iron Mask.
Mysterious disappearance have been
lar more numerous than hasty readers
imagine-some permanent, some tenn
porary. do not allude to modern
ones within living mems memories, says
q correspondent OF London It'd Bits,
but to some past ones of thrilling in
terest, and about which very many
people do not know much, except those
who study old ephemeral literature.
The story of the "Man with the Iron
Mask" most have heard of, but what is
not so we'll known is that, though
general notion exists that this indi-
vidual was Mattheole, Minister of
Parma, there is very strong evidence
that he was really the Due de Beaufort,
with whose mysterious disappearance,
In the letter half of the seventeenth
century, we will commence our list.
he was the grandson of Henry ". of
France and the fair Gabrielle, Duchess
of Beaufort. He was most adventur-
Gus man, and ever keeping Louis XIV.'s
ministers in shot water" He was the
favorite of the fiery Paris mob, always
ment. kidnapping political enemies
was common stratagem then on the
continent. Beaufort went to Gambia
with the French troops sent there on
an expedition, and was never seen pub
hcly again, having been, it was said,
killed. But rumor grew stronger and
stronger that he was the mysterious
captive who was at the lie st. Marguer-
lite, where he flung the silver dish out,
which was picked up by the fisherman
who owed his life to never having been
taught to read. What made these ru-
mors stronger was the knowledge that
the prisoner was treated with all the
honor and Difference shown to royalty.
Louis XIV. took great interest in the
yelled captive, whoever he was, and
who died in the Bastile just twelve
years earlier than the grand monarch.
But the brilliant Duo de Beaufort,
though sought for by troops of friends,
disappeared from all public gaze from
the time he reached Condia.
Next we will consider very differ
ent and much humber person who
mysteriously disappeared, and about
whose disappearance as little is known
there was 134 years ago. This is EliZ-
abeth Canning, whose case set all En-
gland by the ears pro and con. On
New Years Day, 1853, she disappeared
In Bishopsgate street on her way
to her mothers shop in Alderman
bury, then street of small, old-fash.
Toned houses. Rewards were offered,
inquiries made, but the ill-lit streets
full of ruffians, and the absence of po
Ico, made any outrage possible. Near
ly month passed when, one night, 6
spectral figure tottered into the Alder
manbury shop, in whose emaciated face
and form her mother hardly recognized
Elizabeth Canning She said she had
been imprisoned ia lonely house a
Enfield. Two women wer0 tried, con
victed, and, under the then Draconiar
laws, sentenced to death. A reaction
came. England was divided into
friends and foes of the girl. Th,
women were pardoned, and the CIR
was tried for perjury, convicted, anC
transported for seven years, but it was
a nominal sentence, for she married il
the convict settlement, throve, re
turned home, and died early. Yer,
many considered her q MARTYR; he
principles and demeanor were uniform
ly religious, modest, and quiet, and he
character excellent. Many controver
sizes have been held, but of that mys
terious disappearance we know just a
much and just as little as did our an
cestors in the re gn OF George IL
who, by the way, took personal in
terest in the inquiries.